Story Highlights

Behind the Kangaroo Express on North 18th Street in Monroe, Chief Deputy Marc Mashaw of the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office pulled his patrol unit to the side of the road and lowered the passenger window.

Sheriff Jay Russell fished for a piece of paper displaying a pixelated surveillance photo. The suspect in the photograph had stolen fake electronics from a bait car parked in the area the previous night.

Beckoning a man walking with a McDonald's bag to the window, Mashaw asked his name. The man called himself Miguel Newton — later, deputies discovered his name was actually Donnell Williams.

This spontaneous inquiry stimulated a domino effect leading to an arrest and the retrieval of two sets of stolen property.

Success

During the past two weeks, the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office spearheaded the Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force, an initiative in Monroe, West Monroe and Sterlington focused on using tips and intelligence to assist in conducting proactive criminal patrols. The task force reinforced police presence on the streets, assisting local patrol divisions that need time to focus on responding to calls from the public.

“'You get out (of the patrol unit), and there’s a ULM PD uniform, and a West Monroe PD uniform, and Monroe PD uniform, and a sheriff’s office or a trooper or a DPS or a Sterlington police, or any of that, and it sort of confused the suspects on the street.They didn’t know what to think. And then about that time, you had a helicopter hover about 100 feet off the ground over them.'”

Ouachita Parish Sheriff Jay Russell

"All of of us here worked together," Russell said. "You put aside the badge, and you do what's best for the citizens of Ouachita Parish."

Over the course of the two operations, which took place July 21-23 and July 31-Aug. 2, the agencies issued 165 traffic citations and made 244 arrests. Law enforcement seized 17 firearms, three vehicles and $18,335 in cash.

One methamphetamine lab was seized along with over 120 grams of meth. Of the 244 arrests, 129 were drug-related and 92 were warrant arrests.

Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force

To demonstrate the success of the venture, t"All

he Sheriff's Office invited me to spend four hours in a patrol unit with Russell, Mashaw and public information officer Deputy Glenn Springfield before "getting a new ride" with the OPSO Special Crimes Apprehension Team.

I wasn't afraid until the weight of the army-green bullet-proof vest settled on my shoulders. More than it comforted me, it reminded me of the potential for gunfire.

I wasn't afraid for long.

"This task force was probably unprecedented in its size and the scope that it was," Russell said.

More than 40 Monroe police officers, West Monroe police officers, Sterlington police officers, Ouachita Parish sheriff's deputies, Louisiana state troopers, Metro Narcotics agents, Department of Public Safety officers and officers from the University of Louisiana at Monroe crowded a caravan of marked and unmarked patrol units, assuring my safety as I remained concealed in the backseat of a Chevy Tahoe with tinted windows.

Each unit contained officers from differing agencies. A sheriff's deputy partnered with a West Monroe officer; a Monroe officer partnered with a state trooper. They worked together in the rain and provided assistance to other units when necessary.

If not for the weather that night, a state police helicopter would have joined their ranks.

Russell described how the presence of multiple agencies affected suspects.

"You get out (of the patrol unit), and there's a ULM PD uniform, and a West Monroe PD uniform, and Monroe PD uniform, and a sheriff's office or a trooper or a DPS or a Sterlington police, or any of that, and it sort of confused the suspects on the street," Russell said. "They didn't know what to think. And then about that time, you had a helicopter hover about 100 feet off the ground over them.

"If they thought about running, they changed their mind."

At a news conference Wednesday morning, District Attorney Jerry Jones of the Fourth Judicial District said he suggested the idea to Russell years ago.

"It made sense to me," Jones said. "It's been good for this community. And we need to continue this. It needs to be done often, on a regular basis. We need these police officers on the street doing what they know how to do, making arrests."

"It went off without a hitch, as you can tell," Russell said. "It was very successful. It exceeded our expectations, and I can't thank these men and women behind us enough for what they did."

Shannon Oaks Apartments

Mashaw thought Williams resembled the man in the photograph, so the sheriff asked him if the unidentified suspect looked familiar. He said he didn't. The two men asked a few more questions before Mashaw asked to follow him to his apartment, where Williams said he'd left his identification.

Shannon Oaks Apartments

While Mashaw followed Williams home on foot, multiple other patrol units arrived at Shannon Oaks Apartments as reinforcements. The assembled officers and deputies — the sheriff included — conducted "knock-and-talk" investigations throughout the complex as a proactive deterrent to crime.

The task force reported conducting six "knock-and-talk" investigations over the two week span.

Law enforcement officials interviewed residents and focused on small flip-top notebooks. While I watched, I wondered if any of them felt uncomfortable having full conversations with so little eye contact. (As a reporter, such exchanges continue to feel socially bizarre to me.)

The interviews took more than an hour while I waited, desperate to know what happened to the man with the McDonald's bag. Springfield and I monitored a bait car parked elsewhere, but no one ever attempted to steal it.

Finally, Mashaw returned. He said after learning Williams' real name, deputies discovered the man was wanted in Lincoln Parish on a burglary charge. His bond had been set at $100,000.

Then after searching Williams' apartment, Mashaw said he found a television previously reported as stolen in Monroe and the faux laptop stolen from the bait car — the property that prompted them to speak with Williams in the first place.

When deputies arrested him, Mashaw said Williams gave his McDonald's apple pies to a few children outside.

Deputies booked Williams into the Ouachita Correctional Center on charges of theft from a motor vehicle and burglary in addition to his previous burglary charge.

Thanks to proactive police patrols, a single question led law enforcement to close three burglary cases.